The Forward (Forverts), the "largest Jewish newspaper in the world" for many years, was founded in 1897 in New York City, by a group socialist immigrants from Eastern-Europe. One of its founders was Abraham Cahan, who later became the chief-editor and the leading figure in the newspaper for several decades.

With the growing wave of Jewish immigrants to the USA in the first two decades of the 20th century, the Forward gained growing popularity and its circulation grew rapidly. In 1915 it reached a circulation of 200,000, and in the 1920's and 1930's close to 300,000. Local edition of the newspapers were printed in Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore. In its peak, the newspaper had writers and contributors all over the Jewish World, writing on Jewish and non-Jewish topics.

The newspaper contained news reports, along with a variety of other sections: Opinions, a weekly supplement of photographs, a satirical section, publications of poetry and literature, and essays on a variety of topics (such as History, Literature, Jewish Demography and Sociology, Economical issues, Jewish Thought and many more). Amongst its many contributors, we can mention Y.Y. Zinger and Y.B. Zinger (some of his famous works were first published in the newspaper as serials), Alter Kacyzne, Abraham Liessin, Abraham Reisen, Zalman Shneur and many more.

After the Second World War the newspaper saw a steady decline in its popularity, for numerous reasons, though it continued to be one of the most important and influential platforms of the Jewish community in the USA. In the 1980's the newspaper became a weekly, and it is still being published to this day (with different editions in English and Yiddish).